Since there were no new exciting vinylmation releases today, I think it’s a good time to ask how do you decide which and how many vinylmations to buy? I’ll be honest, I’ve only been collecting for a year and a half. This is still considered ameteur night for many of you, but it’s still long enough to know how hard this hobby can hit your wallet. My personal collection stands at a respectable 200+ vinylmations. Again, not chump change, but definitely not as many as a lot of you can claim. Although my wife teases and calls my vinylmations “toys”, I’ve been lucky that she’s been understanding of my vinylmation obsession. But I can only imagine that not everyone shares this luck and the collection can cause problems. So that brings me to the question: How do you choose how to collect vinylmations?

Tray Vs Bloxing

When a set comes out, I typically blox unless I know I will eventually want to collect the whole set. Bloxing, for those unfamiliar, is opening up a blind box of a vinylmation. The advantage to this is that it is a cheaper alternative and you get the thrill of the chase. But it’s that thrill that can make the cost rise up. It’s like a tin of Pringles. “Once you pop, you can’t stop”. At roughly $14 a box, it doesn’t exactly break ones bank to buy a box or two. But the thrill and excitement can sometimes take over and before you know it, you’ve already spent $100 plus and you still haven’t caught the chaser. At a certain point, you calculate the money spent and realize that you would have saved money by just buying a tray and selling the duplicates. So….do you blox or would you rather buy a tray?

Whole Set or Just Selected Vinylmations

Not every vinylmation in a set is a home run. There are those sets that have one or two must have’s and a ton of fillers. For me, an example of this would be the recent villains set. I wanted the Chicken Man Vinylmation and the Darla Vinylmation, but I didn’t really care for the rest. Rather than buy the whole set, I simply traded to get these two then called it quits. But according to some of the collectors that I’ve talked to, this is hard to do. Once they start a set, they HAVE to finsh it. And to some, completion includes both the chaser and the variant(s). Do you feel the need to purchase the entire set or would you be satisfied with just the chosen few?

Eachez

I like to call Eachez the vinylmation equivalent of a lottery scratcher. You pay roughly $15 for a chance at pulling the limited 1/250 variant, but are often left with an army of commons that are worth $10 at best and are hard to trade off. Because of this, what limit do you set for yourself when purchasing these Eachez? When the Ant-Man Eachez came out, I gave myself a personal limit of only 5 Eachez. $70ish for a chance at a variant? Sure, I’ll press my luck. Fortunately I pulled the variant, but if I didn’t pull it, there was a really good chance that I would have continued to buy until I actually hit the variant. So my question with Eachez is: What is your personal limit on how many Eachez to buy before stopping? Getting a variant is awesome but owning 20 half-faced Peter Parkers is pretty frustrating.

So how do you you collect? Do you buy trays or do you enjoy bloxing? Do you buy whole sets or just the characters that you like? Do you set personal limits on how many lottery tickets, um….I mean Eachez you will buy?

When I look at my display case full of row after row of Vinylmation, my little brain started to think about what would make up a perfect series and what series out of my collection would I consider perfect, which I couldn’t really narrow down since almost every series so far has a few minor issues with it. But coming up with a perfect series isn’t that easy since everyone has different thoughts on what people would consider perfect.

For me, the biggest way to make a perfect series is to have a strong theme that is Disney related, that’s probably the easiest thing to start off with since any series without a strong set of characters generally won’t be as popular. Strong characters are needed for so many reasons including putting a few major characters on the box and tray to attract customers to buy them.

Leading on from that, having strong characters is very important as the perfect series would one without a few fillers, with the new smaller case sizes of either 5 or 7 main figures, it allows for a much stronger series which is something I think will improve future sets as too many full sets of 12 have suffered from having too many weak links.

Adding lots of different accessories to make different figures stand out is another added bonus, a full set of figures without accessories just doesn’t look as exciting.

Another major way of making a perfect series is to have one of the strongest designs used as a chaser, having a amazing chaser can make a huge difference to the overall attraction of a set to collectors, using off the wall figures or figures that is just a poor design can really kill the buzz on a set. But maybe the best way of making a chaser even cooler is to make a variant Super Chaser like the Ghost Obi Wan that is perhaps still one of the all time most wanted figures, even years after its release its still one of the most expensive figures and I know one day I will eventually get hold of one.

This leads on to the inclusion of variants, adding variants to blind box series can really increase the amount of buzz a series gets from its collectors as people keep buying blind boxes in the hope of getting variants such as the BATB Bimbette or Park 9 Dapper Dan but with extra variants of variants. Personally I never got the appeal of variants, if I got hold of one it’s a nice bonus but some collectors go nuts for it.

I would also personally like to take a few ideas from the Urban Redux series, I think adding in some “hand drawn” very limited items added to a series falls into this category of an added bonus but I know some collectors don’t like this idea but for me it’s a nice added treat.

Obviously the main common figures are the biggest part of having a classic perfect series with variants and the chaser adding extra bonus points into making an amazing set. But for me, part of a perfect series comes from things away from the actual design such as its production numbers and distribution.

Now this shouldn’t impact on a perfect series but if you think about some of the best series, many people wouldn’t throw the names of series that ended up at the Outlets. For a simple reason that while many collectors are happy picking up sets cheaply but many collectors want their figures to either retain or increase in value. Obviously this is a bonus point to many but things like this do have a impact.

Also in the same area, there is a very thin line between a series being very popular and selling out too quickly , compared to a series that hangs around for ever and has to be reduced to clear (regardless of the design). For me a perfect series should sell out and never be reduced, but not sell out so quickly that no one has a chance to get them. But again these don’t make a series any better to look at but it does improve the perception of a series over time.

A perfect series is a very person thing, which is why Disney release so many different themed sets, While Beauty and the Beast appeals to some, Star Wars might appeal to someone else and a Park set doesn’t appeal to many Disney store customers who have never visited the parks.

This is why a perfect series is so hard to get, there have been many amazing sets that people and I’m sure more sets will be coming in the future, so what would be your perfect series, past and future?

In the past year we have seen a new explosion within the Vinylmation community, the popularity of the Eachez line has been incredible, super fast sell outs, high priced variants and lots of excitement have seen Eachez become a hot property. And judging from the previews at the Imagination Gala, Eachez are going to continue to play a major part of Vinylmation going forward.

One of the biggest reasons for the success of the Eachez brand is the “chase”, Disney have brought the chase back, by adding the variant factor, people are often buying more than one blind box, resulting in faster sell outs and more cash in the till. The Eachez blind boxes are a perfect fit into special events such as Trade Nights, Star Wars Weekends, D23 Expo’s, as well as for holiday events like Easter or Independence Day.

But it has caused a few issues along the way, often many of the Eachez are only available at the parks of at exclusive events, locals go nuts for them, buying up loads, which is great for Disney but it has left many non-local collectors either paying through the nose or only getting a shot at the common. Often picking up a common figure is extremely easy as they flood the secondary market, locals often can buy in bulk, open them all up, sell the variant for a profit and usually sell the commons for cost or just above (not always).

This has led to many non-local collectors, almost giving up on many of the Eachez variants, but more importantly there are many collectors who think Disney are going to overcook the whole Eachez line. Currently most releases have been pretty successful, they’ve sold well and haven’t needed to been heavily reduced in price. Disney only want to make Vinylmation that will sell, the days of Outlets full of Vinylmation and huge discounts on Disneystore.com are hopefully a thing of the past, but if Disney keep churning out Eachez contentiously, it might go the same way as the 9” or Twin Pack.

I still believe the Eachez idea is a great addition to Vinylmation and adds a level of excitement to buying a “open window” figure, but at some point, the bubble might burst. A few too many releases with too high an Limited Edition size could bring Eachez down with a bump, let alone if Disney produce too many open edition figures such as the Theme Park Favourites.

Disney have a fine line to walk, Eachez are a lot of fun and have been very successful, but it does feel like they have almost abandoned other formats like the 9”, twin packs, boxed sets etc in favor of these nifty little blind boxes. Eachez are also being introduced to the Popcorn’s line to try to save that and they’ve already experimented with a box set (Tower of Terror), so I believe in the future we will probably see a lot more than individual blind boxes.

However, Eachez could be the saving grace of Vinylmation, it could be exactly what it needed, bringing back the chase and just as important, the exclusivity of lower LE numbers and limited availability, but I still have a feeling in a couple of years, it could backfire if not handled correctly.

*UPDATED* Thanks to some awesome corrections by our readers (see comments below), I have decided to update my “wish list”. Thank you and enjoy!

With August more than halfway done and our bank accounts nearly depleted, Disney is hitting us with yet another vinylmation set this Friday. Disney has already announced 7 of the common characters: Doc, Donald Duck, Fix-It-Felix, Flynn Rider, Mabel, Piglet, and Tuke. The big question lurking on our minds is, “Who or what will be the chaser?” Here are my thoughts….

Kuzco as a llama from “Emperor’s New Groove”

This movie is one of my favorite lesser known Disney movies. David Spade’s sarcastic humor fit Emperor Kuzco perfectly. I’ve seen a bunch of Disney pins with Kuzco, it would be nice to see him as a vinylmation.

Mud Covered Maximus from “Tangled Ever After”

In Animation Series 3, we saw a red Pascal as the variant. I think it would be cool to see a mud covered Maximus as the chaser for Animation 5. “Tangled Ever After” was a short film released where Pascal and Maximus went on a chaotic adventure trying to recover Rapunzel’s and Flynn’s wedding rings. At the end of this short film, we see Maximus exhausted and covered in dirt. This scene would make an awesome vinylmation.

Ray from “Princess and the Frog”

Characters from The Princess and the Frog are surprisingly absent from the Disney vinylmation world. I could be wrong, but I don’t know of a single The Princess and the Frog vinylmation out there. If you have not seen this movie, I would highly recommend it. Hearing Ray sing “Ma Belle Evangeline” was one of the more heartwarming moments of this modern day Disney classic.

Sofia the First

To be honest, the only reason I chose this character as a selection is for my daughter. Sofia the First is actually a really great cartoon on the Disney channel. The catchy tunes and parental-like messages that this show conveys makes this a must watch in my household. If a Sofia vinylmation ever came out, my 4 year old would be bouncing off the walls.

On August 15th, Disney is set to release their Vinylmaiton Park Series 14 Set. Here at Vinylmation Kingdom, we like to have fun and try to guess what the chaser will be. Here are my guesses/hopes…

Push the Taking Trash Can

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

I personally never had the privilege to see this “secret” Disney celebrity, but it was a park favorite that many Disney fanatics went crazy over. Push the Talking Trash Can was a robotic trash can who would stroll around and joke with Disney patrons. Sadly, this character has since been retired from the parks.

Hipster Mickey

Almost every Park Series has had a Mickey vinylmation included. My hopes is that this time they use one of their newest Mickey offerings: Hipster Mickey. This version of Mickey can be found in stores around Disney Parks as well as on disneystore.com. Since it is almost a given that Mickey will be included as either a topper or a chaser, how awesome would it be if they included this modern day Mickey?

D-Street

Vinylmation collectors know that D-Street is the mecca for vinylmation purchasing within the parks, at least for us Californians. Whenever I go to Disneyland, D-Street in Downtown Disney is a definite must visit. As important as D-Street is to vinylmation collectors, it would be exciting to see this store represented as a vinylmation.

Cast Member Holding Flashlight

Although there is already a cast member vinylmation out there, I want to see a version of this vinylmation wearing a reflective vest and holding a flashlight. When nighttime hits Disneyland and all their nighttime attractions begin (i.e. Fantasmic, fireworks show in front of Sleeping Beauty’s castle), there is always that trusty and smiling Cast Member guiding us with their flashlight. Whether they are telling us, “Please don’t stand there!” or “Please keep moving!” , these cast members definitely make their presence known during the night at Disneyland.

What do you think? What do you hope to see with the Vinylmation Park Series 14 chaser?

In the past few years the Outlets have become a major part of Vinylmation, those discounted stores have Vinylmation piled high at silly prices, 3 for $10, even 5 for $10 and 9″‘s for the price of a 3″ plus piles of pins, bags, juniors and other Vinylmation themed items.

The Outlets near the theme parks have delighted collectors with the opportunity to grab plenty of bargains and it brought about a general change in attitude, instead of rush out and buy everything, wait a bit, go to the outlet and get it for a quarter of the price. But this wasn’t sustainable, Disney obviously don’t like it, the idea of collectors waiting for discounts isn’t good in the long run as essentially the Outlets are the way of distributing items which either were over stocked, badly designed, not popular or simply out of date.

But many Vinylmation collectors take Outlet shopping for grated, as it has become a bit of a tradition for collectors who are on vacation or even if your a local, pop into the outlet to grab some bargains, top up on cheap traders or custom fodder. I know in my last two trips to the Disney World, I headed to the outlets but I really noticed a difference from the last trip and in the months since my last trip, every time I post a new story about what’s available, there seems to be less and less choice.

Outlet traders caused no ends of problems as the trade boxes in the parks become overrun with the discounted items that were in the outlets (and at Disney stores). Trading became so bad, Disney actually had to start enforcing stricter rules and reduce the amount of overall trade boxes because they had so many complaints about the overall quality of traders. But while the Outlet stock is reducing, the selection at the trade boxes has just flipped over to all the recent Non-Disney stuff.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that putting in a $2 trader into a trade box and pulling a $13 recently purchased new release or maybe a variant or chaser is too appealing. People in general are out to get the best deal as possible, some people might argue that they don’t buy cheap traders for the parks, the majority of people do. Having traded in the past in Disneyland Paris where at the time, discounted traders didn’t really exist, the trade box experience was fantastic, almost every single figure was a blind box figure from something in the store. The newest figures dominated the boxes and collecting a series was fun. But over time, that has changed as those discounted Outlet/.com vinyls spread across the pond to our shores. Even we can’t escape them!

The 9″ Vinylmation has almost been wiped out with the assistance of the Outlets, it might not be the actual outlets fault as to why the 9″ dominated the outlets as overproduction of both LE and actual designs caused that, but with not a single 9″ on display at the recent Reflections of Evil event show we aren’t going to see anything like that again. While new items like Dumbo and Jabba the Hut have ended up in the Outlets, at smaller LE’s and better designs, they haven’t hanged around that long unlike most figures but even t the outlets their price is pretty high compared to other 9″s. But once this lot runs out, I can’t see them being replaced.

But what is interesting is that all of this in my view is changing, the recent changes brought in by the Vinylmation team is going to make Outlet shopping a very different experience. Looking at the selection of vinyls available on my recent trip, one thing is very noticeable, there isn’t as many new items.

Yes, there are sometimes new items that haven’t sold maybe as well as expected and need to go to the Outlet to be discounted, but I seriously doubt we will see stock piles of Vinylmation at the outlets in a years time. Taking a look at some photos of the stock selection recently show a pile of old Open Window figures that have taken ages to shift and we already know they aren’t making many Open Windows in the future, in 2013 we’ve only seen a handful made. Also there was a pile of ugly 9″‘s that have been sitting on the shelves for years asit does seem like the 9″s that got released in the last year have been reduced (Jabba, Dumbo, Grizzly)). And finally blind box series that have been in the outlets for well over a year like Robots 2 and Cutesters at the Beach, yet I saw none at the Outlet myself. Disney has been much more proactive in making less of each series such as Monsters University, Beauty and the Beach, Park Starz 1 which have all been retired however I could see some future sets like the non-Disney Cutesters and Urban Redux, but it really depends on if they have lowered the production runs. Again the Disney Store products come under a different division.

Disney have been learning from their mistakes, they made too many releases with to many designs with too high production numbers that ended up being reduced and hanging around for a long time in the Trade Boxes. Recently the Vinylmation team have been making changes to make sure this stops, bringing in smaller case sizes, lower Limited Edition sizes and generally just trying to bring the chase back. Sadly for some, that doesn’t go hand in hand with Outlets. Disney got greedy and it backfired.

Collectors both love and loath the Outlets, many enjoy the discounted prices while others didn’t like how it reduced the Vinylmation brand, but I seriously doubt we will see a return to the Outlet prime. And after seeing it first hand, I think if I was to return in a years time, I’d be lucky to find a few items (though I get the feeling those Open Window On Stranger Tide ones will be heading there soon, piles of them, I know I went through every pile I could to find a Jack Sparrow but sadly never did!).

The other night I was looking at the shelves of my Vinylmation collection and thinking “I need to change the shelves over to make more space” as originally when I started collecting I brought some Acrylic three tiered shelves for my glass cabinet but then when I got my spare bookcase, I moved over to the Lakeland “Step it Up” shelving set which almost doubled the amount of figures I could get into the same space. I went through my collection and over the three display cabinets (I have an Ikea glass cabinet in the living room and in the spare room a large book case plus a tall CD rack and I had the dreaded thought “I’m gonna run out of space soon”.

I have maybe space for another 100 figures if I move some shelves around, reposition some of the figures, take some out of the boxes and convert the last few shelves over to the Lakeland Step it Up shelves.

Now some collectors might just say, well just buy another cabinet or move house. A great idea in theory but my lovely wife might disagree with that thought. Other suggestions to me include rotating my display, put some away in storage, I would agree to that if its Halloween or Christmas but I usually have a thing about putting things in the cupboard/under the stairs (I don’t have a loft nor garage/shed) that if they aren’t used, do we really need them. And I have that same thought in the back of my head, if I’m going to put most of the Have a Laugh Series and Tunes in a box, why not actually just sell/trade them.

Simply put, I’m getting to that dreaded point where I need to take a good hard look at what I’m collecting. Earlier this year I wrote an article about how I was changing my buying habits, how I was no longer interested in buying everything and how I brought things. This might have slowed down the growth of my collection this year but at some point, I’m gonna run out of room and then things are going to get a bit messy.

I have a collection of nearly 800 figures, that’s a hell of a lot! When I think about how much they could put in my bank account at the moment, it does make me cringe.

The other night I went through my list of vinyls on Chasing Vinylmation and just ticked every figure I maybe could get rid of, I was a bit ruthless and before I knew it, I had put over a 100 vinyls on that “target” list. This was much more successful that I originally thought, as I had tried this a year ago but only cleared out about 30 figures (mainly Sea Creatures and some randoms like Urban’s and Under the Big Top). There are some sets I brought that at the time I was a bit more into and some of them were available in the UK so I brought them, sets like Tunes, Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story, Classics, Have a Laugh and the 25th Anniversary series. There are a few from each set that I like, but the rest aren’t that amazing (sorry Emu, Big Baby, Country Daisy and Bambi!) that I could get rid of. But breaking up a set isn’t easy, the first series I did this with was the Classics set where I got 11 of them (no Oswald) and decided to clear out half of the figures as I just haven’t a clue who they were. I also managed to get a complete set of 110th Japanese figures since they randomly went on sale in the UK, I like a few of them (Donald, Genie and Pooh) but had they not been released in the UK, I wouldn’t have actually brought them.

One of the things that jumped out at me from the beginning was I had a much clearer view of what I want to keep which is a good start, anything Park related (Park, POTC, Park Starz, Haunted Mansion etc) and location related (city, park, event etc) instantly stood out as stuff I want to keep. Which explains why these are in the Living Room cabinet, these are what I love the most. The next level of figures are mainstream characters like Star Wars, Marvel and sets like Animation/Pixar/Furry/W&T. Muppets is a series I have a bit of a like/dislike for, I have the 3 sets but only really like the main characters (more so for series 2 and 3).

While it might be easier to not buy certain items from future releases, actually looking at what I’ve already brought is much harder. I’m sure lots of collectors go through these same thoughts, unless you’ve got a room put aside where you can buy as much as you want (lucky you).

My first step is to order a few more Step it Up shelves and reorganise my collection, sort out the boxes (I already found I had to un-box lots of figures before to make space, my general rule of if it gets discounted in price, open it!) and generally sort out the space I’ve got. Then while organising my figures, have a closer look at what I don’t really want and get rid of some. It’s never an easy choice to go through and trim off some of the fat but I hope my collection is better in the long run.

Welcome to a brand new feature on Vinylmation Kingdom, where we share with you, interesting photos and videos from our readers social media which includes Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. This could be mail day photos, photos from the theme parks, new vinyls, pictures with your vinyls, vinyl related Youtube videos, funny photos and we will even throw in a few Funko and Disney Infinity things as well. Basically any interesting photo or video that we have been sent or seen that we want to share with our readers.

– Emile always finding stuff to eat

And check out this video from SourceFedNerd talking about Vinylmation:

If so send in your photos and videos, be it your latest Vinylmation additions, your collections, funny pictures, videos, vacation pictures etc. This is where we share our love of Disney and Vinylmation with other like minded people.

You can get in touch with us and also keep track of Vinylmation Kingdom through the following Social Media links.

Variants have been part of the Vinylmation collecting world for years, the madness of the hunt for the Ghost Obi Wan or the different coloured Pink Elephants from Animation 1 were all huge issues for collectors to get their heads around.

Over the past year, we seem to have had an explosion of Variants and variant fever, as almost every single blind box series in 2013 seems to have had a variant (I can only think of Little Mermaid & Whiskers & Tails..ps I don’t include the Non-Disney High School type things!) Every time a new series comes out, some collectors go nuts to try and get all the variants. Buying blind box after blind box or even multiple cases just in the hope of getting variants.

Throw in the current trend of cases not just having one variant, but some having multiples of the same one, mean some collectors have been going on a rampage to buy up as much as possible.

Adding Variants to blind boxes makes a lot of sense, it keeps hardcore collectors keep coming in and buying more vinyls in the hope of getting them. It does however leave many collectors scratching their heads and thinking, why would I pay $100 for Thor with a beard? And many collectors just dismissing variants as unobtainable and moving on.

Then Disney went and came up with the Eachez idea, basically to make almost every event or single figure into a blind box with a variant. Every thing that was once in a open window seems to be moving over to the Eachez setup. Something I think is a pretty cool idea, it is drumming up so much more interest than a open window or tin could ever do. It’s creating a frenzy of collectors on day one buying as many blind boxes as possible in the hope of getting the variant edition. A LE1000 figure might have sold out quickly, but when people are buying multiples, they aren’t going to last as long. Which is music to Disney’s ears, they just bring out a figure, it sells out and they make their money.

The Chase is back and I think its generally a good thing that figures are more in demand and people want to get back into blind boxing. I don’t think a LE2500 open window Olaf would have been as in demand had it not been in a blind box, nor the Festival of the Masters figure. So from Disney’s point of view, this new blind box Eachez brand seems to be working.

But there is a darker side to these variants, people buying multiples then trying to charge people over retail for the non-variant edition, or trying to flip their extra variants to get as much cash or a hard to get Vinyl. Many collectors have a compulsion to be complete a set or not be missing a figure, and variants feed this addiction. Willing to pay big bucks for a variants and some collectors have cottoned onto this idea as a way of making a quick dollar. Collectors often want to buy opened blind boxes to have a little gamble themselves, which I completely understand, its the half the thrill of buying a blind box.

I’m not against people buying a couple of extra blind boxes in the hope of getting a variant and then trying to trade their extra normal versions. I did the same with the Food & Wine 2013 figure, but I’ve seen people buying dozens of figures in the hope of getting variants to sell. If I managed to blind box 2 variants, I too would be over the moon and happy to make a big trade to make the most of my luck. There isn’t anything wrong in someone obtaining two “Elastigirl” or “Summer Olaf” figures and trying to trade them for something good. That’s a major part of trading, my problem is with people buying dozens of boxes to try and make a quick buck.

However the market does control the price, its become very apparent that while there is a rush to buy as many blind boxes as possible, as quickly as possible, it doesn’t take too long for there to be a flood of standard figures which start pushing the prices down. If your after a Eachez figure and only want the common figure, my advice is to simply wait for the panic to drop off and you will be able to find one at less than retail. Its simply supply and demand.

Disney are making loads more cash out of Variants and some collectors are doing very nicely out of the variant rush, but there are plenty of other collectors sitting back, looking at this and thinking “why?” To me getting a variant is a bonus rather than an essential and I think Disney seem to have grasped a major point of Vinylmation in bringing that chase back in.

But as I mentioned, it does have an ugly side to it and I hope eventually the variant rush dies down once people start noticing a pattern of the variants often reducing in value as time goes on.

Last week the Disney Park Blog posted an interesting story with some previews of some forthcoming releases that are due out in the next 6 months with a tiny hint and when they will be released. (Click here for that story)The Vinylmation community went into melt down, my social media feeds and notifications went through the roof as everyone was talking about them, what they liked, what they didn’t, asking for more information. Basically this one small preview story created more buzz about future releases than some sets ever get.

Collectors love to know what’s coming out, the hunt for new pictures and new releases is never ending, never quite fulfilling that hunger. Disney can be very good at promoting Vinylmation and generating excitement about future releases but they can also be damn right awful.

This was a perfect way of getting people excited about some new releases, we had already heard about some of them back in September at the Reflections of Evil event, but this was the first official release information given out to the general public.

Collectors know these are coming out and can make a little plan in advance to save some money for them and more importantly, creates that buzz to make people want them. Disney showed off a couple of images of the Aladdin Junior series in September and then never released any information until they were almost ready to be put on the shelves and that was by the Parks team, Disney Store has a dreadful habit of not promoting its new Vinylmation and they should be really looking at how the parks team are doing it.

A simple image with a single figure from a series on it, a few months away (heck I’d a few weeks away at the moment from the Disney Store), can create excitement for new releases which have to result in bigger sales. Disney Store artists themselves have been almost forced to release pictures on their own social media pages to promote their new figures, they want people to buy them, so it makes sense to publicise it.

The Disney Park team don’t do it all the time but they seem to do it every now and again, last year they gave us sneak peeks at Beauty & the Beast, Silly Symphonies and the Tower of Terror set, months before they got released.

Something so simple and such a cheap advertising trick seems to be completely lost, social media is a great way of keeping customers in touch with a brand and new products. Its not rocket science, businesses spend a fortune promoting new products and getting the word out, it doesn’t always have to be at big events like Comic Con or the Imagination Gala, just a simple picture of 1 figure with the words “Coming Soon in” could make such a difference in sales.

Have you ever come to a point while collecting Vinylmation where you just kind of look at everything you have and say “What am I doing here?” With so many different vinyls coming out on what seems to be a weekly basis, a lot of us get into that habit of wanting to get everything as it comes out regardless of whether we really want it or not, its the completionist in us that does it.

For myself, my closet is overflowing with vinyls, they are in drawers, on the floor, in tackle boxes, shot glass cases almost any place you could possibly imagine, I have a vinyl there. I think we all get to that moment in collecting where we either think we have too many, or don’t really have a theme to our collections. I am one of those people.

There seems to be many ways we can get a hold of our collection’s. Properly displaying them around the house is something I have tried as well, don’t be afraid to put them out there in your house they are great conversation pieces. Almost anytime someone has come into our house and see the filled shot glass cases on the walls filled with the coolest Vinylmation has to offer, friends always ask what they are and fall in love with them. They are great art to add to any house on the walls.

You may be feeling though that displaying them isn’t quite the issue, that your room or rooms for that matter are just overtaken by the hobby. Cutting down a collection can be extremely sad after putting so much effort into building it. Nice ways to get your collection in order can include collecting character from only certain movies, individual characters or any type of them that fits your wants.

Another great way to condense of course is to attempt to trade multiples of vinyls you may not want or need for that one hard to get vinyl that you are dying to have, I tend to find myself doing that a lot. It’s a great way to bump up your collection while decreasing it in size. Collecting vinyls is fun and it always will be and you should never let the size of your collection discourage you from collecting more, but sometimes we may need to get it in order.

I know a lot of people out there have their ideas of how they organize, condense or display their collections. I would love to hear what you have done with yours? Let us know by posting in the comments.